Vertimus

And that's what I was alluding to yesterday, vis-a-vis massive praise from most for new tracks, calling them "career highlights," etc., and having equally massive enthusiasm for an album yet-unheard. Some of which is common to Stans of all artists, and some of which underscores Lana's talent and power as an artist. To me, it's sociology. As you've pointed out, GLF, the patterns of response, reaction, and behavior fairly jump right out at one if you're paying attention. It's like the eternal rebirth of an endless cycle, "a new skin for an old ceremony.'

Brave, and women have been saying that on the street, around the dinner table, and in the media for at least 60 years.

Thank you, DC, that's all fascinating. We all know of the double standard that applies to men and women where sexuality is concerned in the West. It saddens me how many tens of millions of people today, especially in America, still think of human sexuality as 'wrong,' 'dirty,' 'disrespectful,' 'sinful,' etc. That's part of our Anglo-Saxon heritage, since early America didn't have any kind of erotic tradition except a horror of it, and has hardly developed any since. Regarding the ending of 'FWWM,' the movie is so grim compared to the first two seasons that that influenced the way I saw the ending. Of course, the subject matter is extremely grim, and was also in the original series, but the tone was so different. I have seen it several times since and I can never see it any other way, that Laura was damned even by death and the presence of the divine, because what she had experienced was so completely soul-destroying. Thanks for your take and your thoughts.

I agree completely. Some people are more likely to react emotionally to a song, or a new track, while others react analytically, and someone who reacts analytically today may react emotionally to a new track next week or next month. All views and opinions civilly expressed should be tolerated. As I've said before, the only Lana song that ever brought me to tears is 'Old Money,' and years after I first heard it, when an incident in my life made several of the lyrics resonate. But here, I see members saying they're "sobbing," crying, or "tearing up" fairly frequently. That is an honest account of their reaction. We all have different personalities, strengths, experiences, backgrounds, talents, etc., so finding a wide variety of response here seems like the expected norm, just as we find that wide variety and diversity around us in our own lives.

Full agree about not exaggerating it. Being the type of stream-of-consciousness track that it is, with the lyrics very likely being composed spontaneously or semi-spontaneously using a mic, it has all the 'imperfections' (if you'll excuse the term) one would expect from a non-traditionally-composed song. I thought Rayland Baxter did a much better job with a similar kind of 'deconstructed' track on the title song of 'If I Were A Butterfly' and 'Thunder Sound' from the same album. There is a general tendency for Stans to exaggerate with almost every new release of Lana's, especially those from her own forthcoming albums (and less so for songs like 'Watercolor Eyes'). Sometimes people go crazy over a new track not only because it's been widely anticipated, but because it's completely, or very, different than what the artist has done before, but 'doing something new' doesn't necessarily equate with 'something great' or even 'something good' with any musician or songwriter.

Being a longtime and thorough Twin Peaks fan, that's an interesting analysis, DC. Maybe 'The Grants' will further reflect on a family dynamic, that being the source, in one way of looking at it, of Laura's problems? I admit I really don't understand the point, or points, that the first part of the song are making or attempting to, or how they relate to Lana herself, if at all. I assume the lyrics are about someone else, a character Lana has invented, or are observations she's made about women in the United States and how they're treated, or a combination of all of these (the most likely, I think). The character in the song does sound passed saving or reversing her current situation, so if she were Laura, it would have to be Laura towards the very end, the last days shown in 'Fire Walk With Me,' and the references to the lack of a God, or a response from God, somewhat reflects the end of 'FWWM,' when the angel arrives but it's too late, and Laura laughs hysterically at the irony. That's how I interpret the end of 'FWWM,' and I consider it one of the most grueling and painful endings in all of cinema. The A&W lyrics do seem to have been written, or composed, in the 'new' method she spoke about 6 months ago, about speaking spontaneously and semi-randomly into a mic. Perhaps because of that, I don't find them exceptional, deep, or especially well done, but of course if they were composed spontaneously and then not edited (or edited very much), they would come across exactly like they do. I'm glad Lana feels comfortable doing that, regardless of how I find the end product in this particular case.

Thank you so much. I didn't expect such a reaction---from anyone here. I do find many of her other songs more challenging than what we found on NFR!, even some of the despised tracks from LFL, like 'WTWWAWWKOD,' because that was unlike anything she had done before and she could have fallen flat on her face, but she pulled it and its complexities off completely. I do look forward to the rest of the new album and am glad she's found herself in a place were she feels she can really let go and do exactly what she wants to, even if it's simply experimenting. Creatively, that's often important, and sometimes more important than the result.

Thank you. If that's accurate, it's ironic for me, as it's my least-favorite of all her works, the one I consider the least Lana-like, and I consider some tracks--like HIAB--to be subpar and below her. As I see it, there are 5 good or great tracks and the rest is mediocre and unchallenging at best. I consider both COCC and BB to be vastly better and truer in spirit to the Lana I recognize.

In what sense was NFR! about ‘world building’? Any thoughts? At least in one way—The Greatest—it was about world destroying.

So do we think there will be any other 'traditionally structured' songs on the new album, or will all the remaining be something in the stream-of-conscious mode of A&W?

AND I didn’t care for the ‘tunnel’ lead single much and I am only slightly more impressed with AW. Lana sounds like she’s sleepwalking through both, and by intent.

I love BB almost all the way through. I play it more than any other LDR album.

When the lead single to this album came out. 99% here loved it.

I agree it's 100% by intent, but for me, the lack of fluctuation in the first 5 minutes is also a bit deadening. I'm glad she's experimenting and feels free to, but for me this is more sideways than forward. If I like really 2-3 songs when it's released, that will be enough for me.

I wish there was more fluctuation in her voice in the whole first five minutes.

I thought we heard it would be 7:43 and "well over 7:00 minutes." Yet it's 7:14 minutes.

I do like it, and it gives me hopes for the rest of the album. Beats at last. I do hope we get another single before the album drops. Enjoy, everyone.

The critics will love it because it's deconstructed and something newish for her.

Thank you, Elle! I'm listening, have purchased.

Thank you. Are we sure of that 11:00 a.m. time?

Shouldn't it already be out in New Zealand or whatever early time zone then?

I wouldn't call the Interview cover glamorous; the inside photos were much more so, but even then, not pushing hard for 'glamour,' as I see it. I would love to see the return of glamour Lana, so it's not that I dislike that 'version' of her.

The one photo of Lana and the young man against the car seems to have drawn inspiration from the very brief scene in 'Annie Hall' where Annie (Diane Keaton) remembers her first boyfriend Dennis in Wichita Falls, and they're shown outside a movie theater talking, and the night and the scene are all shades of brown and dull yellow, except for the movie marquee.

Interview magazine has been around for 50 years and has always been purely conversational--like this conversation between Billie and Lana. It's never been anything but conversational. Back in days of yore, Rolling Stone and Playboy used to do hard-ass interviews where they would really press people on matters and issues, and then Linda Ronstadt would end up saying things like, "If you wanna hear my voice, then go buy one of my records, don't bother me while I'm dining out with friends, it's so rude."

No one can deny now that Lana is not an intelligent woman, an intelligent individual, an intelligent person, and Billie also. Of course, I've always thought so--knew so--like all of you. I love to read good criticism, good analysis, but loathe analysis based on political ideology, especially today, with "a female, a woman, must present herself only in this way: ____________," or "Americans are starving and struggling in this country and this rich bitch, with all her five houses and sports cars, has all her beautiful people problems." Bravo, Lana. Life is not a Marxist script.